Royal Alexandra Theatre

The new, all-Canadian production of Once delivers all the emotional kick you expect from this haunting show and then some. I found this the most moving of the three different productions of the show I have seen. Electrifying! A PURE JOY! If you've ever loved at all, you owe it to yourself to see this show.

Part fractured fairy tale, part acrobatics display, part bluegrass concert — this novel rearrangement of the classic story is a rollicking delight. Forget the sub-zero temperatures, the January blahs or the five pounds you gained over the holidays. The perfect cure for these ills is waiting for you at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, where The Heart of Robin Hood opened — no, make that “exploded” — on Wednesday night.

Sir Noël Coward, play boy of the West End world, jack of all its entertainment trades and Master of most, was born on 16 December 1899, just before the last Christmas of the 19th century, hence the name Noël. The second son of an unsuccessful piano- tuner-cum salesman and a doting, dominant mother, he grew up in suburban, lower middle-class South London in what he would later describe as ‘genteel poverty’.